August 31, 2007

In order to replace electrical cables leading to the Dome of the Rock shrine, the Islamic Waqf has dug a power cable trench on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount that has damaged ancient ruins dating back to the Second Temple, charge leading Israeli archaeologists.

The work was approved by the Israel Antiquities Authority, but independent Israeli archeologists insist that the heavy construction equipment being used is destroying layers of ancient remains -- including a 23-foot wide wall that was most likely a part of the courts of Herod's Temple.

Trouble began when the Waqf, the Islamic Trust that administers the site, brought in a tractor to dig a trench. The Waqf said it was replacing a 40-year-old electrical cable, but Israeli archaeologists were furious.

"In the last week, the Islamic Wakf authorities on the Temple Mount have carried out a barbaric act of excavating illicitly," said archaeologist Gabi Barkai.

He told a news conference that the digging of the 400-meter long channel has harmed relics from the time of the Temples.

"This channel destroyed several layers of ancient remains upon the Temple Mount," he added. "The trench encountered also a built wall which could have belonged to the outer courtyards of the Temple itself."

The Dome of the Rock is part of the Al Aqsa Mosque, which occupies the entire Temple Mounth. The Dome was built by the Moslems in 685 A.D. over the site of a large rock called the Foundation Stone. The rock is believed to be the site where Abraham fulfilled God's test to see if he would be willing to sacrifice his son Isaac (Genesis 22:1-19). Later, the first and second Jewish temples were built on the site. The Foundation Stone, situated inside the Holy of Holies, is where the Ark of the Covenant was placed in the First Temple. During the Second Temple era, the stone was used by High Priest who offered up the incense and sprinkled the blood of the sacrifices on it during the Yom Kippur Service. Rabbinic legend says that the entire world was created from this stone.

Israeli authorities have faced harsh public criticism for allowing Judaism’s holiest place to become an unsupervised construction site.